"Amaya" de Navarro Villoslada en el siglo XX: avatares de una narración antijudaica

This paper analyses two modern adaptations of the historical novel Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII, published by the Catholic writer Francisco Navarro Villoslada between 1877 and 1879, in which the 711 loss of Spain is the result of a Jewish conspiracy. Luis Marquina’s movie (1952) simplifies the theological implications of the original plot in favour of a brutal stigmatization of the Israelites, possibly facilitated by the tense relationship between Spain and Israel in the early ’50′s. On the contrary, Rafael Ramos’ 1981 graphic novel almost completely discards the structural references to the conspiracy theme, leaving only a few decontextualized allusions. Finally, the paper highlights how two anti-Semitic libels, Los judíos a través de los siglos (1939) and The Plot against the Church (1962), subsume some of Amaya fictional elements promoting them to historical truths.